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Africa North

More drone strikes hit smugglers in Libya

2023-06-03

[AlAhram] Forces of Libya's Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
-based government launched dronezaps against suspected smuggling sites in the country's west Friday as they pursued a campaign begun over a week ago, local media reported.

"Strikes targeted Zuwara" some 120 kilometres (75 miles) west of the capital near the border with Tunisia, broadcaster Libya al-Ahrar reported.

It aired footage of thick columns of smoke rising from two sites in the city, a departure point for ~~migrants~~ colonists trying to reach Europa
Europa

...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
illegally.

On May 25, the defence ministry of the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity said it had begun a major military operation against "gangs of fuel, narcotics and human traffickers" in western coastal areas.

On Tuesday, a statement from the ministry announced that the first phase of the campaign had been successful.

It said "seven migrant smuggling boats, six drug trafficking depots... and nine tanker trucks used for fuel smuggling" had been destroyed.

The operation has continued despite claims of political score-settling in a divided country with two rival authorities, the UN-backed GNU headed by Abdulhamid Dbeibah and a rival administration in the east.

Oil-rich Libya was plunged into years of chaos after a NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions...
-backed uprising toppled and killed strongman Moamer Qadaffy in 2011.

Armed groups have exploited the turmoil to fund their activities through fuel smuggling and the illegal trafficking of ~~migrants~~ colonists.

The current operation has so far been limited to dronezaps. The first targets were sites in Zawiya, 45 kilometres west of Tripoli.

Media reports said the towns of al-Maya and Ajelat, both west of the capital, were also targeted.

Dbeibah, who is also defence minister, hailed the accuracy of the dronezaps in footage broadcast on Thursday of a meeting he held with the military.

"We will hit with an iron fist everywhere we can," Dbeibah wrote on his Facebook page.

He said that while the raids so far had been carried out by drones, the campaign's second phase would aim to "arrest all wanted persons", suggesting the future use of ground forces.

Posted by:trailing wife

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